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P-TOMS comes to Sri Lanka Parliament
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 8:20 PM SL Time
June 23, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is to present the Post-Tsunami Organisation Management Structure (P-TOMS), also called the Tsunami Relief Council proposal, for debate when Parliament meets tomorrow, leader of the government group Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.
He was responding to a question raised by JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa when the Parliament met this morning.
Mr. Sirisena said the House could debate it at the time of adjournment.
The JVP leader of the House had wanted to know whether the government intended to present the document to Parliament on or before signing it with the LTTE. He also said he has received information that while the House debates the document, the government plans to sign it.
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LTTE Says Cannot Rely on CBK's words anymore
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:45 AM SL Time
The LTTE says that they cannot rely anymore on President Chandrika Kumaratunga's words and she is not using her executive power to establish the Joint Mechanism, instead using the aid deal as an instrument to advance her fortunes. The organisation also accused Kumaratunga for creating a political storm, opposing the Joint Mechanism in the South.
LTTE had told the Norwegians led by Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen they cannot rely on mere words and the mechanism has to be implemented and they don't see it happening anytime soon. Thamilchelvan also had pointed out that the LTTE is not in a position to convey any message to the Muslim community because they cannot rely on Kumaratunga's words.
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JVP signals possible alliance with Mahinda
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:43 AM SL Time
JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa yesterday warned, what he termed, the minority clique in the SLFP-led minority government not to go ahead with the proposed Joint Mechanism aka Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS).
Making a special statement as an opposition MP, Weerawansa vowed to reconsider their desire to defend (stability of) the government and the provincial councils while being an independent group in the opposition. `We'd like to emphasise that this would decisively influence any decision we would take in any future election,` he declared.
Thanking Premier Mahinda Rajapakse and Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle for `their assistance in parliamentary affairs`, the firebrand MP said, `If the struggle you are engaged in to defeat the conspiracy, staged by a minority clique sustained by foreign aid of a few NGOs, is successful, maybe we'll meet on one platform again. We, on behalf of the inspiration of the people, wish that you will be able to defeat the minority NGO clique which had wriggled into the alliance government to destroy it.`
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Politics
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Premadasa dedicated his life for the welfare of the poor
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:12 AM SL Time
The Chairman of the Premadasa Centre and former Minister of Housing and Construction Sirisena Cooray said the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa was a rare leader who dedicated his life for the welfare of the poor and the underprivileged of the country.
Cooray said so at a ceremony to distribute basic aid to 129 house owners affected by the tsunami at the Piyagama model village recently.
He said the late President donated houses to the poor of Hagalla, the birth place of his late father and was named the 'Piyagama Model Village`. `Therefore, it was decided to grant assistance to the displaced people of this village through the `Premadasa Centre`, he said.
On the request of Southern Provincial Council Member Asoka Danawansa and the `Premadasa Centre, Piyagama housing recipients were allocated Rs. 28 lakhs to be granted in two stages, the second being at the birthday commemoration of the late President, on June 23.
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New seating arrangement in Parliament to accommodate JVPers
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:52 AM SL Time
The majority of JVP MPs will occupy seats in the opposition including four front row seats, when Parliament meets today despite protests from the TNA that the JVP has no legitimacy to occupy seats in the opposition.
Speaker W.J.M Lokubandara made arrangements for the new seating arrangement in Parliament yesterday after party leaders requested him to take a decision based on Parliamentary convention after TNA leader R. Sambanthan said at a party leaders meeting that the JVP could not be recognized as single party because it won its seats as a member of the UPFA Alliance.
However the main opposition UNP and SLMC both said they had no problem with the JVP shifting to the opposition side and the party leaders said that a final decision on the matter should be taken by the Speaker according to Parliamentary convention.
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No breakthrough in tsunami aid deal
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:51 AM SL Time
LTTE's political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan said yesterday the meeting with Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen failed to make any headway towards the establishment of the P-TOMS.
Mr. Tamilselvan said the LTTE was firmly committed to a Muslim representation ' in the joint agreement ' that is consistent with the destruction suffered by the Muslim community in the December tsunami.
The pro-LTTE Tamilnet website in a report said:
`Sri Lankan President has the executive power to establish the Joint Mechanism. But Ms. Kumaratunge is using the aid deal as an instrument to advance her fortunes in the political chess game and has created a political storm against the Joint Mechanism in the South. Even for today`s meeting the Norwegian delegation has only brought verbal assurances from Colombo. The meeting has failed to make any concrete steps towards the establishment of a Joint Mechanism`, Mr. Thamilselvan told a news conference at the LTTE peace secretariat after meeting Mr. Helgesen in Kilinochchi yesterday.
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Editorial News
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Look who is talking!
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:16 AM SL Time
Political Wing Leader of the LTTE Thamil Selvan has told Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway Vidar Helgessen that the Tigers could no longer rely on President Chandrika Kumaratunga, as she was not using her executive powers to establish the Joint Mechanism. He has also said that the LTTE couldn't convey any messages to the Muslim community as it could not trust President Kumaratunga.
Look who is talking! President Kumaratunga, who has gone out of her way to have a partnership with a terror outfit and got into trouble in the process, has only herself to blame. She has risked her political future and caused an irreparable split in the UPFA coalition and ruined the prospects of her party's presidential candidate winning the next presidential election, in her efforts to put the JM in place. And now she has the LTTE accusing her of not being trustworthy.
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Pursue consensual politics
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:53 AM SL Time
The emphasis, that the Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe made, on the quality of leadership the country requires today, while delivering the eighth 'Dudley Senanayake Memorial' lecture at the BMICH, is timely.
In his address, he brought out the quality of the leadership that this great leader provided, as four-times prime minister of this country and, quite correctly said, that he delivered on the pledges he made and did not sacrifice credibility, for the sake of lies or slogans. It was, however, unfortunate, that the great task of solving the ethnic problem and uniting the nation that Dudley Senanayake undertook, as the leader of the seven-party government, could not be accomplished.
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Back to Parivasa days'
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:49 AM SL Time
While President Chandrika Kumaratunga is clobbering the JVP, her party is making frantic efforts to cobble together an alliance with the JVP in the Western Provincial Council to salvage the SLFP-led administration vis-`E0-vis the UNP's claim that it now has the majority in the Council. The JVP, having successfully got rid of the President's confidante Reginald Cooray as Chief Minister, is said to be amenable to an arrangement where the UPFA will continue to control the Council with the help the JVP.
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| Security |
Sonia Gandhi will be there, but Jayalalithaa may keep away
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:15 AM SL Time
NEW DELHI, June 23: Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone for the US$560-million Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) in Madurai on July 2. Congress Party President and ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will attend the function.
Other dignitaries who will attend the ceremony will include UPA partner DMK's Chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, and Shipping and Transport Minister TR Baalu, among others.
However, there is speculation in the media here that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayaram Jayalalithaa may keep away from the high-profile event because Union Minister Baalu is not `personally` extending an invitation to her. A lowly functionary of Baalu's ministry may deliver the invitation to the highly protocol-conscious chief minister's secretary.
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Muslims have awakened far too late - Hashim, Musthafa
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:12 AM SL Time
United National Party Parliamentarian and Member of the Political Affairs Committee, Kabir Hashim says that Muslims have woken up far too late to oppose the proposed joint mechanism with the LTTE. He said there should have been Muslim representation at the point of discussion and what the President had done was to prepare and show the document to the LTTE.
`It is the failure of the Muslim ministers in the government, Ferial Ashraff, A. L. M. Athaullah and A. H. M Fowzie. They are a part of the government. They made a public statement two weeks ago that they would support the mechanism and now they are objecting to it at the 11th hour saying it`s not fair and so on. You cannot blame SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem for it because he is not in the government. Therefore the ministers must take the blame`, Hashim said.
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COPE raps Central Bank on finance company misdeeds
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:54 AM SL Time
A parliament watchdog committee, the Committee on Public Enterprises yesterday blamed the Central Bank for failing to recover Rs. 7.3 billion since 1988, from defaulting finance companies.
The House also agreed for a debate on the second report by COPE on performance and current affairs of the Central Bank which was also blamed for failing to properly supervise financial transactions with bankrupt finance companies which had outstanding balances amounting to some seven billion rupees. COPE Chairman Minister Rohitha Bogollagama presenting the second report of the committee said it dealt extensively with mismanagement by certain finance companies with Rs. 7.3 billion shown outstanding in Central Bank balance sheets.
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Business / Economy News
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Buffer zone a hinderance in obtaining bank loans
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:17 AM SL Time
Tsunami affected tourist inns and small and medium scale business ventures are still battling with the authorities to obtain their financial and other needs to restore their battered businesses.
Most entrepreneurs who were affected by tsunami complain about the 100 meter buffer zone. `The buffer zone is a barrier to obtain bank loans and other licenses for us,` said affected entrepreneurs in the eastern and southern provinces of Sri Lanka.
`If we apply for bank loans to rebuild or for the reconstruction of the devastated hotels or industries, banks ask approval of the Coast Conservation Department-CCD,` they said. The CCD is the main body which controls construction on the coastal belt.
A local bank refused to grant loans to The Star Garments of Weligama. The bank refused to grant a loan, because the industry is still located within the limit of buffer zone, said the owner of the Star Garment, M.N.Anurasiri. The garment factory was completely destroyed due to the tsunami. The total damage is just over one million Rupees , Anurasiri said.
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Oil rebounds in Asian trade as supply worries resurface
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:17 AM SL Time
Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade Thursday with investors again unsettled by early worries of a supply crunch during the northern hemisphere winter, dealers said.
At 11:05 am (0305 GMT), New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August was up 41 cents at 58.50 dollars a barrel from its close of 58.09 dollars in the United States Wednesday.
Prices had finished lower Wednesday in US trade after a threatened strike by oil workers in Norway, the world's third largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, was averted, dealers said.
The Thursday upturn however shows investors remain concerned about possible energy shortages in the fourth quarter when demand for heating oil supplies rises as the northern hemisphere winter season begins, they said.
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Oil continues around US$ 59 mark in Asian trade
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:48 AM SL Time
Oil prices futures were slightly easier in Asian trade Wednesday on continued profit-taking after record highs and ahead of the eagerly anticipated release of US weekly stocks report, dealers said.
At 10:45 am (0245 GMT), New York's new main contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, was down four cents to 59.00 dollars a barrel from its close of 59.04 dollars in the United States Tuesday.
The July contract, which expired Tuesday, hit a record high of 59.70 dollars in US trading hours before retreating to close at 58.90 dollars.
`I think the strong rally has led to profit-taking and the players are taking a cautionary position ahead of the US weekly stock numbers,` said Mark Pervan, a commodities analyst with Daiwa Securities in Melbourne.
Renewed concerns about tight suppply in the United States pushed oil to the record high on Tuesday but now the market is waiting on the US Department of Energy's (DoE) weekly report of petroleum stocks, due later Wednesday, for their next lead.
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| Sports News
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Lara out of Lanka ODIs
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:16 AM SL Time
Brian Lara will not play any one-day internationals during the West Indies` tour of Sri Lanka next month.
Speaking to the BBC, the prolific left-hander, who holds the highest Test score in history, said that less one-day cricket `might give me a little more time in the Test arena`.
`That`s what I enjoy a lot, the five-day game,` he added, giving his backing to a form of cricket that has been threatened recently by the popularity of Twenty20 and one-day internationals.
Lara did not play in the three one-day games against Pakistan last month in the Caribbean, which provided an early indication that he was withdrawing his valuable services from the one-day team.
His run tally for the 50-over format stands at a phenomenal 9,302 runs from 255 games, including 19 hundreds, so it is not for want of success that Lara is declining to play one-day cricket in Sri Lanka.
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Miandad unlikely to be given Indian visa
Friday, 24 June 2005 - 2:16 AM SL Time
Javed Miandad is unlikely to be granted a visa to visit India again after it was announced that his son, Junaid, will marry Mahrooq, the daughter of Dawood Ibrahim, who is still wanted in India in connection with the Mumbai blasts of 1993. The wedding is to take place in Karachi, with a reception in Dubai.
The decision to deny Miandad a visa in future was taken at a meeting of officials from India`s Ministry of External Affairs, according to an article in The Mumbai Mirror. Though it was agreed that officially declaring Miandad persona non grata would provoke a response from Pakistan, the officials have apparently decided that any requests for a visa from his side in the future would be politely turned down.
Miandad has visited India several times in the recent past to watch matches and offer his views on TV analysis shows. But with this marriage alliance queering the pitch as far as India is concerned, it could be a long time before he appears on Indian TV screens again.
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Air Force to wing back to rarefied heights
Thursday, 23 June 2005 - 1:47 AM SL Time
One of the country's longest serving rugby clubs is Sri Lanka Air Force SC.
Air Force SC who was among the top teams in various domestic tournaments in the days gone by has come down from their lofty perch in the past decade or so.
They were a real force to be reckoned with in the 1970s and 1980s and also produced an array of quality players for the national side in those eras.
But with the recommencing of the war in the North-East in 1990, they had to opt out of the major SLRFU tournaments.
Since then the Airmen have struggled to make their presence felt when pitted against top sides like defending champions Kandy SC, CR & FC and CH & FC to name a few.
When going through history books, it can be traced that Air Force SC had their finest moment in the rugby field in 1986 when they annexed the Clifford Cup under the leadership of Lakshman Caldera.
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